I’m leaving the band.

And as of today, all my other musical activities are on hold as well.

I need to recover from a collective kick to the teeth I received while I was down – a surprise delivered by my bandmates.

Back in 2019, all throughout the year my health was getting worse. By early 2020 I was in a really, really bad shape and I had to call time-out regarding all band stuff, any social commitments etc.

Everyone in Deathchain agreed that we would be on hiatus until I got better.

During this time we’d been in contact: we had a band BBQ one summer, we were talking about new material and how we would proceed after I was healthy enough to return.

Fast-forward to late 2023. I basically don’t use social media anymore, but I decided to log into Facebook. Literally the first thing I saw was Deathchain’s announcement of upcoming festival shows for this summer of 2024.

With a new line-up.

When I reached out to the guys and said “What on earth is going on?” I got to know that there were also interviews being made, interviews where my condition was mentioned, without anyone informing me about it.

At least there was decency to remove any mentions regarding my health and personal life from those magazine interviews.

And just like that, all the friendships – some of which reach all the way back to the 90’s – that were always based on loyalty, trust and respect, were destroyed. Boom.

This is not a professional way to do things. Whether it’s a band, a company, or any other kind of group or organization. No.

And most importantly: people like this are not my friends, and they don’t deserve my respect.

I’m most definitely not done with music. However, it’ll take a long time before I can even begin to contemplate any possible timeline for a return.

For now, all I know is that I need to cut these toxic people from my life and go forward from there.